Le Tour de Trance

Bit of a last minute change of plan here, couldn't head to the whitehouse as planned so a last minute change of location to Oxford. I knew that Bar Baby had been revamped a few years ago into Baby Simple but I was yet to visit it in it's new guise but it was obvious that since the revamp it has been attracting a few big trance/house nights so I decided it was time to go check it out. The venue is located quite far down the infamous Cowley road and if you blink at the wrong time you could miss it. Previously it was a small venue with a lot of floor space taken up by the bar and a tiny dance floor, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is no longer the case, the bar has been compacted into 2 small bars with a small dance floor between them and more room out the back and upstairs. And the most ingenious bonus of all, a sofa on the side of the dancefloor, which we immediately took full advantage of as the pace was quite slow when we got in there ... but it was still early. A few drinks later and the beat starts to pick up as we enjoy the music from the comfort of the sofa ... but it's concerning as to how slow the dance floor is filling. A drink or 2 more and the beat was really picking up, enough to necessitate leaving the sofa for other weary travellers and hit the dance floor for the rest of the night. From now on the music was really good but the problem of a sparse dancefloor still remained. Half way through the night I got chatting to one of the dj's, Tim Gore who explained the philosophy of the event - aiming to 'Unite' the many people of Oxford who are frustrated by the lack of good quality trance/house/techno in the city, now I know there are a few of you in Le Tour de Trance group that know the problem very well, and I have to say that these guys have got the music right down to a tee but getting enough people to the venue is obviously a problem as this night gets off the ground. Anyway, back to the night, even though the dance floor wasnt packed the music was top notch and everyone was having fun ... especially the crazy guy doing the splits ... I'll leave him to that. Then suddenly at 1 o'clock the music stopped and it was the end of the night despite all flyers saying 2 o'clock and there wasnt even an encore, put a bit of a dampener on the evening but all in all a good night. And just when we thought it was all over we managed to sneak into my old favourite pub - the corridor and they were still playin some funky tunes :P

Stage	Year	Night	Venue	Location	Promoter
6	2008	Unite	Baby Simple	Oxford